Two-time reigning SEC Player of the Year A'dia Mathies of Iroquois High School led No.2 Kentucky to its highest seed ever. / AP

Written by

Doug Feinberg

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Hanging in front of the University of Kentucky’s locker room is a picture of the Final Four logo with a clock next to it.

Since the first day of practice in early October, that clock has been counting down the days and minutes until the Final Four in New Orleans. Now with the NCAA Tournament here, the second-seeded Wildcats hope to be in Louisiana at their first Final Four when the clock reaches zero.

Kentucky will open up its NCAA Tournament today against No. 15 Navy. Seventh-seed Dayton will play No. 10 St. John’s in the second game.

“You have no chance of winning the national championship if you don’t get to the Final Four,” Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell said. “We’re focused on our region and trying to advance through it and win our four games.”

The Wildcats made the regional final last season before falling to Connecticut. The two teams could meet again in the Bridgeport final.

Kentucky (27-5), which is coming off a disappointing loss in the SEC title games to Texas A&M, has made the NCAA Tournament four straight seasons and matched its best seeding.

“It’s very exciting to have an opportunity to be a No. 2 seed,” Kentucky senior A’dia Mathies said. “Our ultimate goal is to go to the Final Four, and it’s achievable.”

The Midshipmen (21-11) are making their third straight trip to the NCAA Tournament after winning the Patriot League Tournament. Navy lost to Maryland last season and DePaul the year before.

“The big thing we learned is coming in confident and just have some fun out there,” junior center Jade Geif said. “We’re going to miss shots, and they’re going to make shots. We know it’s a 15 vs. 2 seed, we’ll do what we can.”

No 15 seed has won an NCAA Tournament game, and Navy is trying to buck a losing trend by the Patriot League, which has dropped its past 20 games in the tournament since Holy Cross knocked off Maryland in 1991.

That doesn’t deter Mids coach Stefanie Pemper, who was an assistant for Harvard when the Crimson pulled off the only upset by a 16 seed over No. 1 Stanford in 1998.

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“It’s going to be a big challenge,” Pemper said. “We’ll get a really good breakfast and get our rest and just dig down. The NCAA Tournament is the most inspiring arena to play in as an athlete. They’ll have much harder physical challenges ahead in their lives.”

Although Navy has won its conference tournament the past three seasons, Dayton (27-2) has made the NCAA Tournament the past four seasons — earning an at-large bid in three of them. It shows how far the Flyers have come in the past few seasons.

“We’re not just happy being here anymore,” Dayton coach Jim Jabir said. “It’s the highest seed we ever had. We want to play on Tuesday, very, very badly. Just getting that first game in and going home is not enough for this team. To be a national program we need to get out of the first weekend and that’s a goal.”

The Red Storm (18-12) struggled early, losing three games in the final possession before turning it around with victories in eight of their last 10 games. The Red Storm have reached the past four NCAAs.